LAKE COUNTY, Fla — Willa Reynolds paid thousands of dollars to have her air ducts replaced, but the company she paid may not have even done the work.
Reynolds told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal, “It makes me angry that people get by with this stuff. And it’s a lot of money for me.”
She said the workers told her they completed the work at her Lake Country home, but she later learned that may not have happened.
“It’s so frustrating,” said Reynolds who explained she was at a breaking point when she contacted Action 9. She had been trying to get a refund for nearly a year.
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Reynolds said, “My house was dusty, and I’ve never had a mobile home before.” She had just moved to the Leesburg area from Washington state and believed she likely needed her air ducts replaced. Upon a recommendation from a friend, she signed a contract with Mobile Home Vapor Barrier Pro LLC, based in Tampa. That was in July of 2025.
From the beginning there were red flags. The “installment pro” listed on the contract, Oscar Castro, who appears to be one of the owners convinced her to pay a 50% deposit by check to a woman named, Nicolle Osorio, not to the company itself. Then before the job was finished Reynolds claims he asked her for the rest of the money in cash.
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“He said, ‘I want more money now.’ And I say, ‘No, you’ll get it when you finish the job,’” Reynolds explained. Later that day, she paid when workers told her the air ducts had been replaced and some other work was done. A few weeks later, her air conditioning company told her it appeared one of the ducts had been stepped on, limiting air into her home and that her ducts hadn’t been replaced at all. When she called Mobile Home Vapor Barrier Pro LLC, she claims they promised a refund, but weeks and months went by without answers and without the promised refund.
After Reynolds contacted Action 9, Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal asked experts at Stanley Steemer to take a look at her ducts.
Air Duct Manager for Stanley Steemer, Earl Thompson, crawled underneath the mobile home and inspected her air ducts. Thompson took some photos and showed them to Willa Reynolds.
“It is crushed right here,” he said as he showed her a photo on his phone. Thompson agreed part of the ducts had been smashed, and based on his inspection, if the ducts were replaced, he said they weren’t installed properly.
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He said, “The more important one is none of the duct work was lifted up off the ground, which is part of the building code itself.”
When Action 9 checked county records, no permits had been pulled for new air ducts in her home. So, after trying to reach the company by phone and email, Action 9 stopped at the Tampa business address listed in state records for Mobile Home Vapor Barrier Pro LLC to try to get some answers.
When a young man answered the door at that business address, Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal said, “We received the consumer complaint from a woman who says she paid $3,500 to have air ducts installed, but she doesn’t believe they were actually installed and wanted to see if we can get her money back.”
The man at the door said, “Uh, well I’m not Oscar.” He told the Action 9 team that Oscar Castro wasn’t available and that he didn’t know anything about the complaint. But within a few hours of that visit, Willa Reynolds said someone from the company contacted her and later that day dropped off a cashier’s check at her home for $3,800. That’s $300 more than she paid. The check also had a written apology that read, “I’m sorry. Thank you for your patience!”
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Still, Reynolds can’t understand why a company wouldn’t do the work in the first place and why it took more than a year and only after Action 9 showed up at the business for them to take responsibility for what happened.
“It’s a lot of money for me, for one thing, but it’s just the fact that they would do that to anybody,” Reynolds said.
It’s important to check reviews even if you get a recommendation since sometimes dynamics within a business change. Also, try to find someone licensed to do the work and verify the license number belongs to them. And if permits are required, make sure the company actually gets permits, so the county or city will inspect the work.
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